Held at the Shenzhen Marriott Hotel Nanshan on July 11-14, the conference was themed “Collaboration: Together is Better!”

CHEI is a project of The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation that offers a portfolio of programmes, including the teaching conference, to enhance hospitality education.

Many educators in China have limited exposure to real-world hospitality operations. They also have few opportunities to network with industry professionals, academic experts or peers.

The conference brings industry and academia together and offers workshops and activities that enable attendees to network, experience hotel operations first-hand, and gain knowledge and resources to incorporate into their classrooms to better prepare students for career success.

“CHEI has grown exponentially and primarily by word of mouth,” said Anne Gunsteens, executive director of The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.

“We were thrilled this year to welcome teachers from 129 schools. Our conference theme of collaboration was brought to life by speakers from Marriott International; San Diego State University, universities in China, Singapore and the United States; STR (Smith Travel Research) and Culinary Institute of America.

“CHEI is proud to help elevate academic hospitality and tourism programs by providing professional development resources for teachers.”

Conference attendees included school presidents and government officials.

CHEI was initially funded with a commitment of RMB 40.5 million (US$6.5 million) in 2013. Since then, more than 800 educators have participated in CHEI train the teacher programmes – the only such programmes in China. These educators are having an impact on more than 100,000 hospitality students.